


Lost Under the City of Love

by CirclesArePointless



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Humor, Heartwarming, Hijinks & Shenanigans, One Shot, Paris (City), Post-Canon, Trains, honk is bad with trains, umi is there to keep her in check
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26422039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CirclesArePointless/pseuds/CirclesArePointless
Summary: A surprise phone call late at night sends Honoka and Umi all the way to Paris. Eager to meet up with their dear friend Kotori after such a long time, they embarked on a journey to a different continent, all for the hopes of reuniting the trio in person since they parted ways after high school.But first, they would have to go through their first hurdle: the metro.
Relationships: Kousaka Honoka/Minami Kotori/Sonoda Umi
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14





	Lost Under the City of Love

Years have passed since μ’s disbanded. All 9 members of the legendary school idol group went their own separate ways since then, starting with the third-years, who had already graduated high school by then. Although they were sad that they were unable to continue their exciting journey any longer, at least they would take pride in having done so in the first place, they even managed to save their dear school, Otonokizaka, from the miserable fate of closure in the process.

The last remnants of the group started to separate once the former first-years graduated two years later, and the former school idols would soon etch their own different paths. Despite that, the nine girls managed to maintain contact with each other, no matter how far they were.

Some stayed in Tokyo, some moved to a different city, while some moved to a whole different continent altogether.

Which is why Honoka and Umi, four years after graduating from high school, just landed safely at Charles de Gaulle Airport, their main gateway to the city of lights. Their All Nippon Airways flight from Narita went without a hitch, for once Honoka arrived on time to catch their flight. The ginger was shaken up to reality by her blue-haired friend, after sleeping like a log during the entire red eye flight.

Among the second-year trio, only Honoka and Umi furthered their studies locally, with Kotori deciding to pursue a career in the fashion industry overseas. She had applied for the Parisian fashion school that offered her a place back when μ’s was still in activity and was glad to find out that her application got accepted. Being in charge of designing all the various dresses and costumes for her idol group was no small feat, especially when said group ended up being one of the most prominent acts in the scene, it’s a no-brainer that she would get accepted. Even after their disbandment, μ’s still hold a great influence over many aspiring school idols, the group usually cited as one of their main inspirations by many emerging school idol groups all across the land of the rising sun.

They even helped propagate the school idol craze overseas, their trip to New York was still fresh on their memories as one of the best moments they ever had together. All that had put a smile on Honoka’s face, she never thought that with her silly little idea to save the school she could put a smile to millions of faces around the world and be a source of inspiration for many others, or as she like to call it, their muse.

All those trials and tribulations were worth it in the end.

It’s a shame nothing lasts forever, but they were glad that they had left a long-lasting legacy in the school idol world, their main monument being the school itself, still open to this day.

It’s also why the two former school idols were really excited for this trip. Since they bid their farewell to their grey-haired friend four years ago at the same airport they departed from, they never had the opportunity to meet each other face-to-face again.

Until today.

Honoka still remembers the call she got three weeks ago. μ’s still had a relatively active group chat, and it’s no secret that some of them had met up with each other in person several times after the disbandment. They are, after all, still good friends with each other, the bond they created as a group would never fade away.

However, with Kotori seven to eight hours behind most of them depending on the seasons, the school chairwoman’s daughter remains one of the hardest to approach alongside Eli, who had moved to Moscow a few years back. When Kotori finally had some free time after a lengthy day, most of the girls would have already fell asleep, unless some were playing night owl. In the end, she ended up having most of her conversations with Eli, where they sometimes exchanged each other’s experience living in a foreign country.

It’s no wonder why Honoka was so hyped up when she saw the familiar name on the screen, it never dawned to her that they hadn’t heard each other’s voices in a while! She quickly picked up the phone, a smile growing on her lips for every sentence shared with her childhood friend.

Until at one point, her mouth gaped wide open.

No way.

The blue-eyed girl almost squealed in excitement, but living in a student residence, she knew that would be a completely terrible idea. So instead, she had to contain her excitement, but what she couldn’t contain were the tears of joy already flowing from her eyes. She could even tell the same was happening on the other end of the call. They hung up hesitantly after a long call, but not long after, she instantly scrolled through her contact list to call her other childhood friend.

This is going to be awesome!

So here they are, three weeks later, now standing on foreign soil, waiting for their luggage on the conveyor belt.

“It was nice of Kotori to invite us here after a long time.”

Umi opened her mouth, followed by an energetic nod from the ginger.

“Yeah, even paid for the plane tickets! No way I could afford that.”

The girls picked up their luggage and walked to the arrival hall, where they were met with a sea of people walking around the spacious terminal. People from all over the world flocking around in the same building was quite a nice sight, Honoka thought.

Without further ado, they went to the train station, their first step on finding their way to Kotori’s house. For now, all they had to do was to take a train to the city centre, where they would stop by for a quick breakfast and some further planning on their journey.

When they arrived at the train station, the two were caught in awe from the scale and design of this magnificent piece of infrastructure, a harmony of glass, concrete, and steel. Tokyo has its fair share of impressive stations, but it’s always fun to see what other countries have on their sleeves. When they reached the common concourse, Honoka suddenly rushed towards the open-air portion, where one could clearly see the platforms and the tracks on the lower level. She had only stopped short from the edge, before calling out for her close friend.

“Look, Umi! Look at all these trains!”

As if in cue, one of the trains passed through underneath them via the bypass tracks on the middle, moving at such speed comparable to the ones they had back home. While the Japanese have their Shinkansen, the French have their TGV, after all, the two countries had been major proponents of the high speed rail technology.

“Honoka, we’re supposed to go to Paris!”

Umi angrily pointed at the big trilingual sign, where the English words inscribed were “Trains to Paris”, leading to a different part of the concourse.

She has a point, the TGV services here are for those intending to continue their journey to other regions around France, and it doesn’t make sense to take one of those to somewhere only several kilometres away.

All they had instead was the RER, a cross-city suburban rail network that connects the various suburbs around the metropolitan area directly to the heart of the city.

Umi pulled Honoka’s hands and dragged her to the many ticket machines at their disposition. Luckily, it was rather simple to use, it works on a touch screen, and they had language options other than the main French language. They opted to change the interface with English, where they would understand the options provided on the screen better. Their English had improved a little bit since their New York trip, they could now understand and interpret things better, as well as holding a conversation rather decently with the foreign language.

They bought two tickets to Gare du Nord and inserted some of their euro notes and coins. They fetched their magnetic tickets from underneath the machine and passed through the faregates, before descending towards the platforms. A train had already parked on one of the tracks, so they entered it, and sat at the green cushions with their luggage underneath the seats.

After a couple of minutes, the carriage started to move, making its way to the capital and beyond, but first, by passing through the northern suburbs of the Petite Couronne. During the entire journey, their eyes were glued to the windows, observing the foreign landscape that was completely different from what they were used to. The green landscape from when they first exited the airport area slowly changed to a view of many low-rise houses made of bricks and stones, followed by some factories here and there, even a huge railyard. It got denser the closer they get to the centre, with medium-rise apartments starting to pop out into their sight.

After about half an hour, they had finally arrived at the underground platforms of Gare du Nord, with a considerable number of passengers already standing near the doors, ready to disembark. One of them pushed the metallic button on the doors, sliding it open for the people dropping at the station. The two girls slowly orient themselves in the midst of the hustle and bustle, among the flock of humans getting around the station in a varying pace. They took an escalator upwards, passed through the turnstiles again, and made their way to the main concourse.

After buying a croissant and a cup of coffee each at a kiosk bakery in the station, they found a nearby table, where they could start planning for the next phase of their journey.

Umi pulled out a physical map of the Paris Metro, revealing a jumble of colourful lines zig-zagging their way inside the map. For first-time travellers, the complicated and extensive network might be outright intimidating.

“Oh, come on, Umi, you know it’s more complicated back in Tokyo!”

Honoka blurted out the words confidently, at least the Paris Metro lines are uniformed under a single operator, unlike back in Tokyo where there are different subway lines and mainlines passing through the city centre under various operators, where a map of all these lines would probably make the Parisian map looks like child’s play.

“Honoka, you know the only lines you knew were the ones going through Akibahara and the Yamanote Line!”

The ginger was stopped short by her friend, who seemed like she had more to say about the matter.

“Plus, do I need to remind you of that time when you missed the station near Maki’s vacation home because you overslept? And the New York incident?”

“Okay, okay, jeez, calm down.”

Honoka does not need a reminder from Umi about how bad she can be with wayfinding. Look at the map they had in hand, it’s like trying to shove up algebraic formulas in your head!

Luckily, her blue-haired friend was there to help her, the adventurous girl surely knew how to get around no matter how complex the map was.

Umi cleared her throat, trying to catch the attention of her friend.

“So, where were we? Oh, right, the metro. Kotori already sent us the location of her nearest metro station, and it’s right here.”

Her fingers pointed squarely on a small circle on the southwest area of the map, the stop where they would have to disembark to get to their long-time friend’s home.

Michel-Ange Auteuil.

“Ooh, they even have Japanese announcements!”

“Honoka, are you even listening?”

The ginger was so easily distracted by the many things going on around her, from the multilingual audio announcements, the constantly moving crowd, down to the magnificent architecture dating from the late 19th century, it was like a barrage of stimuli overloading her senses.

Umi had to snap her fingers a couple of times to get Honoka out of her trance-like state, the blue-haired girl could really use her friend’s attention here. If anything, this just proved that the ginger needed to focus more than ever, her being easily distracted is a recipe for her to get lost in the city.

Like what happened back in NYC.

Umi does not want a repeat of that, she still remembers how dead worried she was for her when the blue-eyed girl accidentally took the wrong train as a result of trying to catch up with the rest of the group. The hours they had to spend on the cold night just outside their hotel. To be lost in a foreign city, especially a huge one at that, it was a miracle that Honoka managed to find her way back to them.

Anyways, enough reminiscing. She finally got her friend’s attention, so why waste it? It probably wouldn’t take that long for the ginger to get distracted again.

Now that Honoka was listening for real, she explained again the journey that they would soon take to get to Kotori’s house. The ginger was extremely impressed by how her friend managed to extract the route from the jumble of colourful lines all criss-crossing against each other like a spaghetti, especially when it turns out that they would only need to change once.

“Line 4, Odéon, Line 10, correct?”

Umi simply nodded, thankfully their trip was simple enough. Any more interchanges would increase the probability of Honoka getting lost.

And herself too. That’s why she came prepared.

“So, Honoka, how’s your French?”

It didn’t take long for the ginger to get nervous, especially coming up against such a tiger mom she calls her friend.

“Uhh, I’m good, hehe, don’t worry!”

Umi inched slightly closer to the girl, with an almost sinister expression taunting Honoka’s ability to keep a straight face.

“Prove it to me.”

Honoka cleared her throat a couple of times, even doing some random vocal training, anything to delay herself from the inevitable. But Umi saw through all her tricks, and her scowl intensified, prompting the ginger to finally speak out.

“Bonjour, je voudrais une baguette, s’il vous plait.”

“Don’t tell me those are the only words you know!”

“Aww, English was already hard, and now you’re telling me I have to pick up another language?”

“Honoka, we’re in a foreign country, and it’s good manners to try know a little bit of their language, don’t you think? You’d be annoyed too if a tourist barged into your bakery with no sense of respect, speaking in a different language without prompting you about it with at least some Japanese to smoothen out the conversation, wouldn’t you?”

Instead of responding to the question, Honoka only managed to let out a slight giggle.

Umi’s eyebrows were arched furiously, how did this girl managed to giggle after a serious question?

“Haha, oops, sorry, it’s just, hehe, it’s just that you reminded me of someone…”

Now her eyebrows were arched curiously.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard of her, but you kinda remind me of Dia Kurosawa, y’know, from Aqours?”

“Oh, I see you’re still paying attention to the school idol scene.”

“How could I not? It still holds a dear place in my heart, I was still moved by school idols just as I was when I first found out about them. Besides, the new idols Nico recommended really rocks. Oh wait, you too?”

Umi’s brown eyes were surrounded by a reddening face, she’d rather just change the topic and stop this conversation from derailing any further.

“Uhh, anyways, the quicker we do this, the quicker we get to Kotori’s house, no?”

“Alrighty then, let’s go!”

With that settled, the two girls rose from their seats, dragging their luggage, and calmly made their way to the metro entrance. After buying two tickets for each, they passed through the faregates, and looked out for signboards leading them to the right platforms, hoping they won’t get confused easily in the labyrinth of white tiles.

After navigating themselves amidst the crowded tunnels, they finally reached the dark grey platforms, carefully investigating the signages around them to reaffirm that they were on the right track. There, they wait among the many people on the platforms for the next train to arrive, and it only took them a couple of minutes for that.

The carriages, covered in a distinct green and white livery, slowed down on its approach to the station, with its doors opening as soon as it stopped, unleashing a different crowd getting off from the train. The girls took some time until the last of the people got off, where they would soon fill it up with the rest.

An affair that took only about a minute, the second the doors close, they were now already on the move.

Being underground, there really was not much to see from the windows, save for maybe some faint lights along the tunnels or the occasional passing trains on the opposing track. The insides were rather packed, but they weren’t like sardine cans, perks of using it on the weekends they supposed.

They passed through a couple more stations, the usual stopping and moving of the train, but it wasn’t until at one stop where the train spent a considerable amount of time parked beside the platforms.

Honoka and Umi also saw how most of the passengers already got off the carriage, it seems as if they knew the reason why. With the train almost empty, they walked outside confusingly, until they heard the familiar jingle from the speakers, making way for what could be an explanation to all this.

They understood nothing.

That is, until the English version of the announcement came to be, at least they would be able to get the gist of it.

“Honoka, it seems like there’s some strikes going on right now…”

The blue-haired girl had a better grasp of the language, so she did her friend a favour by explaining why they were now stranded on the platforms of Chatelet, just a couple of stops north from where they were supposed to descend for the interchange.

“Why do they have to do it now?”

The orange-haired girl was annoyed, all this did was to complicate their journey further, and she already struggled way back at Gare du Nord where Umi had to repeatedly pull her arms from wandering into the wrong tunnels.

Umi was about to pull out her pamphlet to reflect back on their journey, but Honoka had zero patience. She wouldn’t let any striking workers get in the way between them and Kotori. Instead, she dragged Umi out from the platforms, the blue-haired girl had to use her other arm to keep her maroon beret intact, something that she had not worn in quite a while.

The energetic girl pulled her friend down the stairs, and took a turn, with no regards for any signages. She kept on rushing against the crowd, even Umi wanted to speak out but Honoka had no time.

It didn’t take long for them to end up somewhere else, a place where even Umi was awed by it.

The immensely spacious station box was a far cry from the pre-war platforms of the previous line, the modern platforms furnished with granite floors and polished walls were a view completely different than that of the grey floors and the fluorescent white tiles covering the curved walls that they had went through.

It was like travelling through time.

Like Otonokizaka to UTX.

And just like their alma mater, the old one still stood strong despite its age, but seeing something modern is always an eye-candy for the girls.

They were too mesmerised by such impressive architecture that they failed to take note that one of the trains were about to leave. Again, Honoka dragged Umi’s arms and pulled her down the stairs and rushed inside just before the doors closed.

Inside, they were greeted by a different interior than that of their previous train, this one felt sleeker, more spacious, but as always, full of people. The duo realised they got on the front carriage, and one thing they noticed was the absence of a driver’s cab, for instead, there lies a wide front window, showing them the perspective of one.

The eager Honoka again dragged her friend frontwards, standing just behind the window. At least this time they could see more things going around them, even if they were underground.

Umi, who was visibly mad from the sudden chain of movements that she wasn’t consulted with at first, threw an angry glare at her orange-headed friend, who only responded with a slightly nervous smile.

“Honoka, do you even know where we’re going?”

“Uhh, we’ll get there eventually, yes?” Honoka nervously scratched her head.

Umi finally had the chance to properly stabilise her beret, before reaching out for her pocket map, unfolding it one by one. The second the entirety of the map was spread out, she instantly shoved it up to Honoka’s face.

“Now, tell me, where are we heading?”

“Uhh…”

The ginger only stood silent before a female voice emanated from the train’s speakers.

“Next station: Gare de Lyon”

Honoka quickly glanced over the line map just above the doors, before pulling her eyes back towards the map. She traced the dark purple line, trying to discern the general direction they were heading.

Shoot. They were straying further away.

Her blue-haired friend had all the reasons to be mad with her, she was the one that put themselves into this mess without any second thought.

Classic Honoka.

“Now look where you pulled us into!”

Umi’s anxiety was already kicking in, masked by her brewing anger, raising her voice at her childhood friend. Getting lost in a foreign city was not what she had in mind, she was there once, and she doesn’t want to experience it again.

Meanwhile, the crowd all turned their eyes on them, before minding back with their own business in a blink of an eye.

Now, all they need to do is to replan their journey, while avoiding the disrupted portions of the network that put them into this predicament.

With the information they had in hand, Umi rerouted their course, tracing her finger to a couple of other lines from their new origin point.

“This time, don’t just drag people without thinking.”

Getting off at Gare de Lyon, the girls went on another trek in the tunnels, this time trying to find the platforms for Line 1. Their new plan would see them take the line all the way until Étoile, before taking the 6 southbound, dropping off at La Motte Piquet Grenelle, where they would take the final link that stands between them and Kotori, Line 10 until Michel-Ange Auteuil.

Back into the old tunnels after getting off from the modern Line 14, they climbed every stair they saw, tiredly dragging their stuff, looked for any signs they could, taking extra precautions to not get lost again. There was some time where it felt like they were going on a loop, but eventually, they finally broke away from it, figuring they might’ve misread some of the signs.

As they continued their walk, their ears were caught by a familiar melody reverberating from the white tiles of the tunnel walls, a melody reminding them of the good old times.  
They tracked the source of the melody and found a handful of people forming a semi-circle around it.

“…yokan ni sawagu, kokoro no melody…”

There was no mistaking it. This was it, the melody of their hearts, resonating in a foreign city far away from their home. They joined the crowd, who spared some of their time to listen to an acoustic rendition of their song.

The girls were moved, not just by the busker’s cover, but also how their reach surprisingly managed to be global, how they inspired people not just from their home country, but virtually every corner of the world too.

They waited until the performance was over, the performer expressing her gratitude as the passerbys spare their change into her guitar case. The girls were still standing there, with Honoka still clapping excitedly.

The busker stood there shell-shocked, there standing in front of her were the same idols that inspired her.

Two out of nine ain’t bad, besides, the young girl would’ve never thought that she’d be face-to-face to even at least one of them, let alone in a different city thousands of miles away from where they were based from. She couldn’t help but to feel terribly giddy being this close to her idols.

“That was… beautiful!”

The busker only stood there confused, it wasn’t until Honoka realised that she might’ve blurted it out in Japanese.

Luckily, Umi was there to save the day, clearing her throat while she’s at it.

“We’re sorry about that, she meant that you played it beautifully.” The blue-haired girl tried communicating in French but stuttered a lot when she spoke.

The busker recognised the language barrier they were facing, so after expressing her gratitude in her native language, she decided to continue the conversation in English.

“Oh, it’s alright by the way, I could understand a little bit of Japanese actually…”

“Ooh, sugoi!”

She was met by Honoka’s exciting remark, before continuing her appreciation to her idols.

“Anyways, it’s really an honour to meet you two! Your music inspired me a lot!”

The former leader of the well-known school idol group was emotionally touched by the busker’s words, she knew they had a lot of fans back in their heyday, but it was still nice to see that their music managed to move people’s hearts even after some time has passed.

“Aww, thanks for all the kind words! I’m not gonna lie though, it still feels surreal to have inspired some people around the world too.”

“Hehe, I understand, you know what they say, music is universal.”

After a couple while, Umi pulled out a red euro note from her pocket and gently placed it inside the busker’s guitar case.

“It was very nice talking to you, by the way, good luck!” said the blue-haired girl.

“Th-thank you!”

After such an interesting conversation, they continued their mission to get right back on track, and it didn’t take them that much time before they finally arrived on the platform, verifying the signs to make sure this time they’re not misled.

They waited for a little while before boarding the Line 1 train until Étoile, where this time, the interchange was relatively simpler, it only took them a couple of moments before arriving at the platforms for Line 6.

The rolling stock that arrived was of an older kind, and the girls struggled to figure out why the doors wouldn’t open even when they were standing squarely in front of them, it wasn’t until a gentleman spun the metal knob that the doors finally slid open.

They quickly got inside, as their train starts its movement. After spending a lot of time underground, they finally saw the sunlight as their carriage climbed upwards to cross the Seine, beholding an exemplary view of the Eiffel Tower to their very own eyes.

“Ooh, Umi, look, let’s go!” The ginger shook her friend’s shoulder.

“Honoka, didn’t we promise to go there tomorrow? Together?”

“Oh yeah, sorry…”

The only thing they were able to do was to let the towering sculpture of iron pass through, before being obscured by the Haussmann-style buildings along the boulevard their metro was traversing from at least about two storeys above the ground level.

They were already starting to get a little relaxed by the time they got at La Motte Piquet Grenelle, taking in all the breathtaking view of the streets before realising they needed to do one last change. They rushed outside, making sure not to forget their belongings, and took a slight pause on the platforms.

After that, they went downstairs, back under the city, where they would take what was hopefully their final train for the day. They had already grown tired from all the mess they got into and were extremely eager to meet up with their old friend after so many years anyways.

Again, the same type of train greeted their eyes, the old light green rectangular box entering the station. This time, they knew very well what to do after observing what the man did from several minutes ago, that is to pull the metal knob upwards to slide the doors open.

Finally, after several minutes have passed, they arrived at Michel-Ange Auteuil, where they should have been after a long trip. This time, they got out of the station through the faregates, and climbed the staircase up to street level. From there on, they walked along the streets, with Kotori’s address in hand, eager eyes scanning the street names written on the blue plaques at every corner.

They kept walking, turning when necessary, until at one spot, they stood outside the doors, convinced this was the right building. Just to be sure, they looked for any clues to make sure they were in the right address. The numbers were already correct, they were sure that they were in the right street, and sure enough, the words written next to the doorbell was enough proof that they were correct.

MINAMI Kotori

Umi rang the doorbell, albeit hesitantly, and was immediately answered with a creaking sound of the opening door in front of them, revealing a certain someone they had not seen in person for years.

There stood the girl they’ve been yearning for all this time, her brown eyes remain sharply beautiful throughout the years, her long and luscious grey hair still tied in her signature loop. If anything, time had been extremely kind to this fine young woman, who had grown into a refined look that would really match her description as a fashion designer.

“Honoka, Umi…”

Her squeaking voice remains in a high pitch like back in high school but slightly lower, though it was still recognisable enough by her two friends. Tears were already starting to drip from Kotori’s eyes, stirred by the presence of her friends she made since childhood.

The same can be said for the other two, who were already wiping out their tears with their sleeves. Honoka rushed to the girl inside, enveloping her into a tight and warm hug; it really has been a long while since they last felt each other’s touch. Umi joined in a couple of moments later, complementing a different touch for their dear friend.

The hug lasted for several minutes; if it were up to them, they’d want it to last forever, and never to be separated again. Unfortunately, everyone had to go their separate ways eventually. The hug was soon broken but the girls remained happy, even if they already wiped out their final tears of joy.

“Would you like to come inside? I’ve made some tea for you two…”

“Oh, of course, yeah, sure!”

The two friends brought their luggage together inside Kotori’s house, only leaving them somewhere near the stairs just for now.

Now that they were here, they would finally have a chance to chat face-to-face with each other for hours if they wanted to. The girls had plenty of things to talk about, doing it over the phone doesn’t really have the same crunch to it.

They knew all this would only last just for a couple of days, but what matters was that they were finally together after so long, and they hoped that these precious moments will be forever treasured in their hearts. They wouldn’t want this to be the last time they see each other though, so fingers crossed that maybe they’ll cross paths again in the near future.

But until then, Honoka and Umi deserves a much-needed rest after a tiring journey, and they must be in full energy anyways if they want to explore the city of love together with Kotori.

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday kotori!
> 
> for a kotori birthday fic, there really is barely any kotori, but uhh, i guess we could say she drove the plot...
> 
> ~~i'm such a train geek and it shows in this fic~~


End file.
